Monday, May 28, 2007

Just dropping by to say that this is the Italian cover for The Greatest Knight. My Italian publishers, however, are going to call it The Scarlet Lion, to match the device on the cover, and they'll find a new title for the UK The Scarlet Lion. A bit confusing for me the author, but a good idea for the Italian publication. I love the translation of the title. Doesn't it just roll off the tongue!

In other news, I've almost finished with the proofs for A Place Beyond Courage and we're almost there with the cover too. I've also been sorting out future projects in my head. Too soon to talk about them at the moment, but the ideas department is bustling away in the background.

Current Research Reading: The Domesday Book: A Complete translation published by Penguin - rather heavy to hold up in the bath it has to be said!

Fiction: Recently finished New Moon by Stephenie Meyer. Superstar author in the making, mark my words! About to start Brethren by Robyn Young.

Saturday, May 19, 2007

This morning the page proofs arrived for A PLACE BEYOND COURAGE. It's my last chance to add any final tweaks to the novel. After this it'll be cast in stone and any mistakes will be there for posterity. It's been quite a journey writing this novel about John Marshal. I was curious to discover more about the man behind the notorious 'Anvils and hammers' speech that John made when faced with the hanging of his 5 year old son. 'He said that he did not care about the child, since he still had the anvils and hammers to produce even finer ones.' What I've found through my own digging and what he has chosen to reveal to me, have made me realise that despite that apparently callous speech (and sometimes things are not what they seem) without John Marshal's absolute bravery in the face of impossible odds, William himself would not have come to greatness. I hope to return to more regular blogging soon, but for the moment I beg a moment's indulgence to visit with John. I open the novel with a few lines from the Histoirede Guillaume le Mareschal and they are, I think, fitting indeed to the personalities of theMarshal men.

Sunday, May 06, 2007

As many of you know, I re-enact with living history society Regia Anglorum - which means Kingdoms of England. The society's brief is to accurately portray the peoples living in the UK between the years of 954 and 1066. However it does go outside these parameters and the membership has expertise stretching from early Anglo Saxon through to the late Norman/early Angevin period.The society is divided into various local branches who take on a particular ethnicity valid to their area during this period. Being as I live not far from Nottingham, and I have a yen for all things Norman, I belong to the Notts branch of Regia, the Conroi de Vey, who are Norman orientated, but also have a very strong Saxon contingent. Recently, thanks to the efforts of Nathan - big beardy chap in the middle of the photo, De Vey has its own website - still an infant, but coming on well. Here's the url. http://livinghistory.co.uk/homepages/ConroiDeVey/index.htmlGenerally speaking, a conroi is a Norman warband of around 25 troops. (I read the other day that a constabulary was ten. Something I didn't know!). Due to writing and family commitments I don't always get to the shows that Regia Anglorum puts on round the country, but I will be slaving over a hot cauldron at the Tollerton village show next month in good company with the rest of de Vey. Among our ranks we have a skilled weapons smith, a woodturner, a leather worker and a textile expert. I dabble on the cookery side. I may not be able to spin wool worth a bean, but I do manage a mean beef and cumin stew!

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THE WINTER CROWN

WHAT READERS ARE SAYING

" Wow! I feel like someone used to watching movies in black and white but has just seen the first one in technicolor! " A personal letter from a reader.

"The Winter Crown ...will, I have no doubt, become the definitive fictional account of this remarkable woman.' ..." I’ve read a fair few fictional depictions of Henry II over the years and I must say that his portrait in The Winter Crown has the most authentic feel of them all."Kate Atherton, author of For Winters Night blog.

"Eeanor’s life story has been told many times over in historical novels but rarely with such insight, emotional intensity and page-turning readability." Pam Norfolk, Lancashire Evening Post.

"In the world of the arts, the Black Legend and the Golden Myth still hold sway, as seen in novels, such as Alison Weir's, which seek to portray both the scandalous, adulterous queen of legend and the powerful female ruler. Historians may shake their heads at the perpetuation of such myths, but many historical novelists such as Sharon Kay Penman and Elizabeth Chadwick are seeking to apply modern scholarship to their fiction, and consequently avoid the most egregious of the legends that surround Eleanor."

THE SUMMER QUEEN UK cover

US paperback cover. UK hardback

WHAT READERS ARE SAYING ABOUT THE SUMMER QUEEN

"What I loved about this novel, and I have felt this way about all of Elizabeth’s novels that I have read, is that she does not pander to stereotypes or write scandal for the sake of it. The historical Eleanor is defamed beyond belief- a whore chasing anything in trousers, a woman who committed incest with her uncle, a woman who was ‘ahead of her time’, and so on. Elizabeth’s Alienor is none of these things. She is treated fairly, as a woman of her own time, written in a believable way. Elizabeth does not go for scandal because she does not need to- the writing in this novel makes that very clear. Her scene setting is lovely, her character development top notch, and the book is a compulsive page turner. I couldn’t put it down." Sarah Bell

."The Summer Queen is a fabulous novel based on the most up-to-date and meticulous research. This is historical fiction at its best and I loved every page of it." Kate Atherton, blogger.

"I have read just about everything I can about Eleanor and enjoyed both biographical and fictional accounts of her life but I must say that your creation of Eleanor is the most compelling." Reader from Australia

"I loved the story; I loved the way the author wrote Alienor as a woman of her times instead of a thoroughly modern independent woman, or a slut in chase of anything in pants. As with all Chadwick novels, there's also the added plus of being sucked into another century with the sights, smells and sounds that wrap up a darn-near perfect reading experience. I couldn't put it down, and very sorry I'm going to have to wait for the next installment. Reader from the USA"

I often see the expressions, `fleshing out the history' and `making it real', and they more than apply here...the main aspect that made me keep turning the pages and burning the midnight oil? The things that I didn't know about Alienor.." Reader from Australia

"Chadwick has succeeded where many other novelists have failed by giving us not just the legend but the very human young woman – intelligent, determined, witty and sexy." Pam Norfolk. Lancashire Evening Post.